Nick Robinson and Anna Leathem successfully defend client charged with multiple offences
30th April 2025
3PB's criminal defence barrister Nick Robinson, leading crime and regulatory barrister Anna Leathem, defended “D” who was charged with multiple offences of rape, sexual assaults and coercive and controlling behaviour. The alleged offences were said to have occured over a two and a half year period.
D's case was that the allegations were fabricated to gain leverage in divorce proceedings. D contended that the complainant was the controlling, coercive, and physically abusive party. The police investigation spanned two years before D was charged, and so the case involved the analysis of thousands of pages of evidence from over six years. This included WhatsApp and text messages, emails, photographs and police records. Extensive disclosure from the Family Court proceedings, encompassing divorce, financial remedy and applications for Non-Molestation Orders were obtained and carefully examined pre-trial.
A pivotal revelation disclosed to D in his second police interview was that his wife’s biological sex at birth was male, and she had undergone gender reassignment surgery years before meeting him. The complainant accepted she had not told D. It was D’s case that the complainant deliberately witheld this information to avoid the Family Court ruling that she was not entitled to financial remedy on the ground the marriage was void. This issue was relevant to her credibility, and it required sensitive and nuanced cross-examination and argument.
Nick and Anna prepared a 300-page Defence bundle focusing on the most relevant material. This was utilized throughout the trial alongside Nick’s cross-examination of the complainant over three days. After a two-week trial at Bournemouth Crown Court before HHJ Evans KC, the jury returned not guilty verdicts on all counts.
Nick and Anna were instructed by Dwayne Lewis of Renshaw Derrick Solicitors.
To contact Nick Robinson or Anna Leathem, or to instruct either of them, please email their clerk Stuart Pringle on [email protected] or by calling Stuart on 01962 868884.